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Blue States Singing the Obamacare Blues

States that helped carry President Obama to victory in 2012, are now suffering at the hands of his signature legislation. Democrats hoping to avoid the repercussions of Obamacare are going to have a difficult time explaining away its failures in their own friendly states. Republicans are referring to it as the Blue State Obamacare Blues, with Colorado, Hawaii, Washington D.C., Oregon, Maryland, and Massachusetts all suffering varying degrees of embarrassment.

Colorado

Despite claims from officials in Colorado that their exchange would be "easily sustainable" without the need for new fees, nearly a million Coloradans could be responsible for a $13 million fee, and the exchange may still not be viable beyond this year.

Earlier this year, lawmakers were told that Colorado's health exchange was "on track to be self-sustaining by next year" without a need for high fees. Last week, that tune had changed drastically. After spending at least $100 million in federal funds, officials were now "scrambling to figure out how to sustain itself beyond this year."

A $13 million fee on all Coloradans with health insurance would pay half the operating costs at the state health exchange next year and in 2016 under new financial projections. The proposed fee would affect at least 875,000 people and includes Coloradans who get their insurance through their employers or outside the exchange, known as Connect for Health Colorado.

At the same time, those who enrolled within the state exchange are subject to two fees - a user fee of 1.4% projected to double by 2017, as well as a vague fee referred to as a "general market health insurer assessment."

In a state that President Obama won twice, his handling of health care reform has led to a 59% unfavorable rating, and could spell trouble for an important in-state Senate race now classified as a dead heat.

Hawaii

The President's home state is faring no better, as state officials are seeking to raise taxes to keep the exchange afloat. Citing "anemic enrollment" numbers and a lack of interest among small-business owners, the director of Hawaii's health exchange complained that they would not "have enough money to pay its bills."

This, despite a 2% fee on every plan sold through the exchange, and the suggestion to add another tax to each plan called a "sustainability fee." Other fees which were not ruled out included "assessments or user fees to participating health and dental carriers," advertising fees on the website, and/or "selling or leasing its information technology services."

None of these proposals appear destined to keep Hawaii's exchange afloat. A chief executive for the state's largest health insurer is calling for the exchange to be scrapped because it "is financially unsustainable and does not work." Michael Gold explained that forging ahead would cost the public too much, either through fees or taxes.

Washington D.C.

Enrollment numbers in the District of Columbia, or the lack thereof, could lead to higher premiums for everyone with health insurance. The Wall Street Journal reported last week that the city council passed a new tax to help fund their Obamacare exchange.

The plan, submitted by the city’s DC Health Link insurance exchange, gives the city the power to tax all health-insurance carriers inside the district for exchange funding. The council opted for taxing all carriers, not just those selling in the exchange, to make the levy lower, according to a copy of the approved resolution.

Taxes will be levied on health-related policies as well, including disability, dental, vision, long-term care, etc. Prior to the city council's vote, insurers warned that the new tax would result in higher premiums.

Oregon

Oregon's health exchange, Cover Oregon, has been epic in it's failure as a perceived national leader in health care overhaul. Oregon had been given $305 million in federal grants to fund its health care program, with $248 million having been spent by March. Last year, Cover Oregon announced a multi-million dollar ad campaign to introduce the public to the state exchange. The effort was scrapped because the state had never developed a functioning website.

The Oregon board overseeing the state’s deeply flawed health insurance exchange unanimously approved on Friday the Obama administration’s plan to take over the marketplace, making Oregon the first state to drop its enrollment website for HealthCare.gov.

The takeover by the federal exchange will likely lead to an increase in premium rates. Cover Oregon had been financed by a 2.5% premium tax on insurers, while the federal Obamacare exchange charges insurers at a rate of 3.5%.

Massachusetts

Oregon may have blazed the trail for Obamacare exchange failures, but Massachusetts wasn't far behind ditching their exchange, a move that would cost an extra $121 million beyond the $174 million in federal funds that went to the state.

The Massachusetts exchange crashed in October, driving them to develop a partial-paper application approach and ultimately drive their director to tears as the struggles continued.

Maryland

Maryland also scrapped their failed Obamacare exchange, a move estimated to cost anywhere between $40 and $50 million.

The federal government will need to approve Maryland’s plans. It is estimated to cost between $40 and $50 million to replace the website. The board of Maryland’s health benefit exchange voted to authorize the board’s chairman to finalize a contract with Deloitte.

Maryland's online insurance exchange cost $261 million according to officials.

Summary

Colorado's Obamacare exchange will cost nearly one million customers a $13 million fee, while those enrolled through the state exchange will be subject to two fees, one of which is set to double by 2017. The remaining states have been a source of frustrating failure to the tune of millions of dollars. A new report calculates the losses for dismantled exchanges and those on the verge: Maryland - $171 million, Massachusetts - $179 million, Oregon - $305 million, and Hawaii - $205 million.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has encouraged her fellow Democrats to "embrace the Affordable Care Act." They'd be wise to avoid it in the coming mid-term elections. Obamacare's failures have some Democrat states losing a lot of green, operating in the red, or just flat-out singing the blues.

Hypocrisy has never been a stranger in the ivory towers of academia, but the latest development among the faculty at Harvard is a particularly delicious bit of irony. It seems that professors, like everyone, don’t much appreciate having to pay higher prices for health insurance. As a result of the Affordable Care Act’s mandates, however, prices are set to rise significantly within the halls of academia.

Before the initial ObamaCare open enrollment period, the Obama administration emphasized the need for millennials -- young people between the ages of 18 and 34 -- to sign up for health plans available on the exchanges. Health insurance companies need diversity in their risk pools to offset costs, because older and sicker people tend to utilize their coverage more often than the young and healthy.

One of the big arguments for ObamaCare is that the law has mechanisms in place that control healthcare costs, or at least that's what Americans have been told countless times by President Barack Obama and others. They've seized on recent reports of the slowdown in healthcare spending, frequently asserting that the 2010 law is responsible. In reality, the looming effects of the Great Recession is the main reason why healthcare spending has risen at a slower pace.

ObamaCare's individual mandate and bailouts aren't enough for the health insurance industry. The looming expiration of the two-year Medicaid payment increase has, once again, put health insurers on the same side as President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats, who want to extend the payments to doctors.

Roughly a month before videos surfaced in which he disparaged American voters and bragged about deceptive tactics used to ram ObamaCare through Congress, Jonathan Gruber, the controversial MIT economist paid nearly $400,000 to help craft the law, appeared on a panel with several other healthcare policy experts to talk about its progress and the continuing debate on healthcare reform.

The Obama administration continues boast of the rise in Medicaid enrollees. Just before Christmas, for instance, Cindy Mann, deputy administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, hailed as a "milestone achievement" the addition of 9.7 million Americans to Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) since October 2013.

A new Kaiser poll finds that 64 percent of Americans unfavorably view the individual mandate—the provision that requires nearly every American to purchase health insurance or else pay a fine. This is no surprise because the individual mandate has always been one of the most politically toxic parts of ObamaCare. You’ll notice that the Obama administration has stayed silent about the unpopular provision in their enrollment push to avoid backlash.